DC Comics 'Creeper' artist gets 10 years for kid porn

Daniel Tepfer

Updated 12:44 am, Saturday, November 3, 2012

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Josue Rivera, 38, was arrested Tuesday morning by members of the U.S. Marshal Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force and charged with first-degree possession of child pornography. On Friday, Nov. 2, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. less

Josue Rivera, 38, was arrested Tuesday morning by members of the U.S. Marshal Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force and charged with first-degree possession of child pornography. On Friday, Nov. 2, he was sentenced ... more

Photo: Contributed Photo, ST

DC Comics 'Creeper' artist gets 10 years for kid porn

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BRIDGEPORT -- The artist who created DC Comics' "The Creeper" was the biggest creep of all when it came to child porn, a state prosecutor said Friday.

Police said Josue Rivera -- who illustrates comic books under the name "Justiniano" -- photo-manipulated images of a 10-year-old female relative, combining them with pornographic images, and possessed nearly 100 other photos in his child porn collection.

Rivera's secret identity was revealed when he inadvertently gave a thumb drive filled with child porn to a local funeral director thinking it instead bore images of his beloved father, who had recently died, authorities said.

The 39-year-old Rivera was sentenced Friday in state Superior Court to 10 years -- suspended after he serves three years in prison -- and followed by 10 years probation, after he pleaded guilty to second-degree possession of child pornography.

Asked by Judge Robert Devlin if he had anything to say to justify his actions, Rivera replied: "I think I'm good."

Rivera is a nationally known artist whose demented, corpse-like Creeper has faced off against Batman on DC Comics' covers. Rivera excels at twisted and bizzare characters, and has worked on issues of Superman, The Incredible Hulk, Beast Boy and Doctor Fate.

Police said in one of the images they discovered from Rivera's child porn collection he had transposed the face of a female relative onto the body of a nude woman involved in a beastly sex act.

During the sentencing hearing, Rivera's lawyer, Diane Polan, called the state's child porn laws "draconian" and pleaded for leniency for her client.

But the judge was not moved.

"What this whole law is about is missing and exploited children who are exploited sexually to make money," Devlin said. "If nobody looked at this stuff, they wouldn't make money."

The funeral director at Luz de Paz Funeral Home was reviewing a thumb drive Rivera had given him to be used at Rivera's father's funeral when he was shocked to discover porn images of children, according to State's Attorney John Smriga.

Smriga said there were between 75 and 80 child porn images on the drive.

While Rivera claimed he had just been looking at the photos because he was bored, the prosecutor said what was particularly disturbing is that Rivera photo-manipulated a young relative's head on the nude body of a girl having oral sex with an adult man.

"I think that speaks volumes about the defendant's character," he told the judge.